Meandering up the corporate ladder

The shortest path up the corporate ladder may no longer be a straight line, said David Foote, CEO and chief research officer of independent market research company Foote Partners LLC.

"What is an IT Career Today?" was a workshop and four-person panel Foote hosted and moderated Wednesday morning at Babson College. The speakers looked at the changing definition of IT professional, what skills it encompasses, and the changing trends in insourcing vs. outsourcing.

Many CIOs report a disconnect existing between the titles of their employees, and the tasks those employees actually perform. This inaccuracy reflects a change in the route employees take to get to the top. In the past, when workers specialized in a single skill set, it was easy to simply and appropriately label their responsibilities. But modern employees' corporate progression now features more breadth as they traverse meandering career paths. Workers no longer focus on a single skill but instead move among different positions. In one career, someone may play the role of vendor management, business process analyst, and enterprise architect -- jobs that normally do not lead from one to another, but which do produce a more well-rounded employee.

Many recruiters consider this diversity a strength that confers adaptability and big-picture decision-making skills. One panel speaker said that, when hiring, she specifically looks for candidates who have undergone a job rotation -- working within their company but outside their regular position and comfort zone. In another case, a field employee and corporate manager swapped places. The field worker, used to relying on phone and e-mail, had to learn to manage and act in person, while the manager had to develop skills to communicate remotely. Both ended up more skilled as a result.

Despite encouraging this flexibility, some corporations are challenged to classify the resulting jack-of-all-trades. Foote gave the example of one company that categorizes all its staff into four groups: consulting; IT architecture; IT specialist; or project management. That lack of specialization is why Foote says companies should let people, not jobs, define salaries. With over 5000 skills and innumerable combinations thereof coming from people who have wandered across the corporate landscape, it's impossible to accurately reward someone for doing a pigeonholed job (one of only four kinds, in the above example), especially when the title isn't going to match the person's talents and responsibilities anyway.

With so many skill sets available, I wish the conference had connected to whether we might best find such employees: via insourcing, or outsourcing (either offshore and otherwise). There seems to be a growth in the former, and I'm curious to know if it represents a backlash against outsourcing -- that is, whether those who have practiced outsourcing with an eye on the bottom line have experienced a decrease in employee talent and diversity as a result.

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Meandering up the corporate ladder

The shortest path up the corporate ladder may no longer be a straight line, said David Foote, CEO and chief research officer of independent market research company Foote Partners LLC."What is an IT Career Today?" was a workshop and four-person panel Foote hosted and moderated Wednesday morning at Babson College. The speakers looked at the changing definition of IT professional, what skills it encompasses, and the changing trends in insourcing vs. outsourcing.

Meandering up the corporate ladder

The shortest path up the corporate ladder may no longer be a straight line, said David Foote, CEO and chief research officer of independent market research company Foote Partners LLC."What is an IT Career Today?" was a workshop and four-person panel Foote hosted and moderated Wednesday morning at Babson College. The speakers looked at the changing definition of IT professional, what skills it encompasses, and the changing trends in insourcing vs. outsourcing.

Shark Tank: Hey, straight down is a direction too

This big company announces a dramatic new direction: It will reduce its workforce by 6,000 worldwide to free up $100 million to feed product development, reports a pilot fish among the 6,000."After 18 months of research, senior management outsourced such 'business support' functions as IT, finance, purchasing, HR, engineering and accounts payable," fish says."The IT department was outsourced to two separate companies: one for the infrastructure and one for the business applications."Trouble is, the company that lands the infrastructure contract has never done this sort of work before -- just call centers and application support.

Shark Tank: Hey, straight down is a direction too

This big company announces a dramatic new direction: It will reduce its workforce by 6,000 worldwide to free up $100 million to feed product development, reports a pilot fish among the 6,000."After 18 months of research, senior management outsourced such 'business support' functions as IT, finance, purchasing, HR, engineering and accounts payable," fish says."The IT department was outsourced to two separate companies: one for the infrastructure and one for the business applications."Trouble is, the company that lands the infrastructure contract has never done this sort of work before -- just call centers and application support.

Shark Tank: Hey, straight down is a direction too

This big company announces a dramatic new direction: It will reduce its workforce by 6,000 worldwide to free up $100 million to feed product development, reports a pilot fish among the 6,000."After 18 months of research, senior management outsourced such 'business support' functions as IT, finance, purchasing, HR, engineering and accounts payable," fish says."The IT department was outsourced to two separate companies: one for the infrastructure and one for the business applications."Trouble is, the company that lands the infrastructure contract has never done this sort of work before -- just call centers and application support.